Posted 2 years ago on Jan. 27, 2013, 7:21 p.m. EST by PeterKropotkin
(1050)
from Oakland, CA
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By Bashkar Sunkara

Capital used to sell us visions of tomorrow. At the 1939 World's Fair in New York, corporations showcased new technologies: nylon, air conditioning, fluorescent lamps, the ever-impressive View-Master. But more than just products, an ideal of middle-class leisure and abundance was offered to those weary from economic depression and the prospect of European war.

The Futurama ride even took attendees through miniature versions of transformed landscapes, depicting new highways and development projects: the world of the future. It was a visceral attempt to renew faith in capitalism.

In the wake of the second world war, some of this vision became a reality. Capitalism thrived and, though uneven, progress was made by American workers. With pressure from below, the state was wielded by reformers, not smashed, and class compromise, not just class struggle, fostered economic growth and shared prosperity previously unimaginable.

Exploitation and oppression didn't go away, but the system seemed not only powerful and dynamic, but reconcilable with democratic ideals. The progress, however, was fleeting. Social democracy faced the structural crisis in the 1970s that Michal Kalecki, author of The Political Aspects of Full Employment, predicted decades earlier. High employment rates and welfare state protections didn't buy off workers, it encouraged militant wage demands. Capitalists kept up when times were good, but with stagflation – the intersection of poor growth and rising inflation – and the Opec embargo, a crisis of profitability ensued.

An emergent neoliberalism did curb inflation and restore profits, but only through a vicious offensive against the working class. There were pitched battles waged in defense of the welfare state, but our era has largely been one of deradicalization and political acquiescence. Since then, real wages have stagnated, debt soared, and the prospects for a new generation, still wedded to a vision of the old social-democratic compact, are bleak.

The 1990s technological boom brought about talk of a light and adaptive "new economy", something to replace the old Fordist workplace. But it was a far cry from the future promised at the 1939 World's Fair.

For many in my generation, the ideological underpinnings of capitalism have been undermined. That a higher percentage of Americans between the ages of 18 and 30 have a more favorable opinion of socialism than capitalism at least signals that the cold war era conflation of socialism with Stalinism no longer holds sway.

At an intellectual level, the same is true. Marxists have gained a measure of mainstream exposure: Foreign Policy turned to Leo Panitch, not Larry Summers, to explain the recent economic crisis; and thinkers like David Harvey have enjoyed late career renaissances. The wider recognition of thought "left of liberalism" – of which the journal I edit, Jacobin, is a part – isn't just the result of the loss of faith in mainstream alternatives, but rather, the ability of radicals to ask deeper structural questions and place new developments in historical context.

Now, even celebrated liberal Paul Krugman has been invoking ideas long relegated to the margins of American life. When thinking about automation and the future of labor, he worries that "it has echoes of old-fashioned Marxism – which shouldn't be a reason to ignore facts, but too often is." But a resurgent left has more than worries, they have ideas: about the reduction of working time, the decommodification of labor, and the ways in which advances in production can make life better, not more miserable.

This is where what's evolving, however awkwardly, into the 21st-century socialist intellectualism shows its strengths: a willingness to present a vision for the future, something deeper than mere critique. But intellectual shifts don't mean much by themselves.

A survey of the political landscape in America, despite Occupy's emergence in 2011, is bleak. The labor movement has shown some signs of life, especially among public sector workers combating austerity, but these are at best rearguard, defensive struggles. Unionization rates continue to decline, and apathy, not revolutionary fervor, reigns.

Marxism in America needs to be more than an intellectual tool for mainstream commentators befuddled by our changing world. It needs to be a political tool to change that world. Spoken, not just written, for mass consumption, peddling a vision of leisure, abundance, and democracy even more real than what the capitalism's prophets offered in 1939. A socialist Disneyland: inspiration after the "end of history".

I actually haven't seen this Wikipedia link on what being a man is all about.... I see a lot of links and further reading. Can we measure a man by his knowledge of morality.

I think this is important to ask. What does it mean to be a man? What does it mean to seek promotions, salary increases, more benefits ... in context of what we do to make the money? We want to protect and shelter our family .... but at what price to the community?

Who are we? What are we? Is it important how we serve the community? If we work in a job that cuts jobs from the community, state, or country... what does that mean?

I think the answer is obvious when you loook at Latin American History in Central and South America. People are used to approve job cuts, and to cut democracy from the people.

You are not just cutting jobs here in this state, or this community, you are cutting jobs in this country and ... the people that get them are not set free. The people that get your local jobs are getting crap.

There is no up side to all this discourse...

---So maybe I'm not 100% sold on Eliot Spitzer ... Eliot is a capitalist who was working for his own benefit. Like most of us, I guess. -------

"That a higher percentage of Americans between the ages of 18 and 30 have a more favorable opinion of socialism than capitalism at least signals that the cold war era conflation of socialism with Stalinism no longer holds sway." There is hope! Our young people are beginning to see the truth of the failures of capitalism.

"A People's History of the United States" is a monograph, not a textbook, so I don't know what school district would allow it to be used on it's own. And, "A People's History of the World" is fairly recent, I think. Anyway, is it wrong to tell history from the bottom up rather than the top down? I don't think so. It is just different.

As far as I can tell our education system's main goal is to ready our kids to become corporate drones.

Yep, indoctrination as much as education. Otherwise they'd teach critical thinking skills. And it's got a lot worse since I've been in school, it seems.

A little while back while I was looking for something else, I came across one of my report cards from first grade. In addition to the typical grades for arithmetic and phys ed, we were also graded on, get this: 1. Listens well. 2. Follows directions. 3. Uses time wisely. 4. Completes tasks. 5. Works and plays well with others. Sounds to me like the perfect qualifications for the future assembly-line workers and corporate drones.

Well, they are. They also make for good students. But I couldn't help but notice how they also fit the profile of good worker bee. I'm sure my recent interpretation also had to do with my cynical mindset at the time.

Exciting times are fast approaching and this is right up my alley. When you say peddle a vision Walt rocks and we can rewrite history according to legends. Rather than abundance during times with automation (supposedly) on our heels give us work doing what one is passionate about this will hold certain to appeal. Redefining the American Dream is whats real and it seems to me that it now is living in Peace and that is how the American Dream will be reality for us all as one People I AM WE...

Sen. McCarthy was a raging Capitalist. Cold War america promoted Groupthink as much as War on Terror america does.

It is against the law in 38 states to think for one's self. In Alabama, standing up for yourself is punishable by lethal injection. In New York, standing up against BB can get LB to go after you in BB name's.

Neither, Communism/Socialism or Capitalism reconginize the fact that people are individuals and seperate and independent of all others.

You are against 'Solidarity' which to my way of thinking is a function of 'compassion' so I'm somewhat non-plussed by what you say. However, we are very constrained here by the limitations of the English language but in the absence of deep meditation and psychic bridges, I append for your consideration :

IF you engage with the above, you'll get it deeply beyond the merely intellectual. DK speaks like none other in what sadly passes for 'politics' in ''The United Sates of Amnesia'', as Gore Vidal (RiP) called it.

Apparently - ''The Buddha said that you can't have compassion for others if you do not have compassion for yourself.'' ! However, when I try to engage you at that higher level, you proceed to slip and slide !! You are not at all consistent & are increasingly coming across as a querulous and obtuse sophist !!! So, in a final attempt to 'intelligently' engage you 'intellectually' and to encourage you try to understand what it is that I am talking about here, I'm sincerely recommending this video to you :

You're a misanthrope trapped in a 'rugged individual' / 'lone wolf' fantasy possibly and who is in abject denial of your dependency on other human beings. I can't help you with any of that but you should read more from the Buddha. I'll stick to pro-99% socio-economic and political awareness though :